March 6, 2001
Homer Hits Home in Albuquerque
By Leanne Potts
Of the Journal
You've no doubt heard about the episode of the animated Fox sitcom "The Simpsons" that aired nationwide Sunday night in which Albuquerque's struggles for a baseball team, its stadium-hungry mayor and its love of salsa got more than a passing mention.
Given Mayor Jim Baca's efforts of late to lure a Canadian baseball team to town with promises of a new $28 million stadium, it seemed the "Simpsons" writers were commenting on politics in Albuquerque.
Turns out it wasn't a case of cartoons imitating life, but of life imitating cartoons.
"I'd love to say it's our sharp, insightful commentary on the local politics," said Mike Sculley, "Simpsons" executive producer. "But it's pure coincidence."
Sculley said the show was made nine months ago, well before the real mayor of Albuquerque vowed to get a baseball team here or else, and that the show's creators knew nothing about the local drama.
The show's plot line went like this: Homer Simpson stages a hunger strike to keep the Duff Beer Corp. and the unnamed mayor of Albuquerque from stealing his hometown Double A baseball team, the Springfield Isotopes. No one believes Homer when he says the Isotopes are about to be sold until he reveals to them that the new Isotope Dog Supreme (a hot dog) comes with mesquite-grilled onions, jalapeno relish and mango-lime salsa. "That's the kind of bold flavor they enjoy in ALBUQUERQUE!" Homer says.
Other details made it seem all the more real: There was a lobo on the hot-dog wrapper, vigas on the ceiling of the mayor's office and Kokopellis on pennants for the Albuquerque Isotopes. And when the cartoon mayor can't get Homer's team, he says: "Looks like we'll have to steal some other baseball team," sounding sorta like the real-life mayor when he talks about getting a replacement for the Dukes.
The show ends with the cartoon mayor vowing to go after the Dallas Cowboys. "But sir, they're a football team," his assistant tells him. "They'll play what Ah tell 'em to play, for Ah am (dramatic pause) the MAYOR OF ALBUQUERQUE." Cue the sinister pipe-organ music.
Did Greg Payne write this script?
The impact among "The Simpsons" faithful was immediate. They thought this was a documentary.
The real mayor of Albuquerque got this e-mail Monday from a pair of "Simpsons" fans in Indiana: "We're onto you. Get your own baseball team!"
And someone called ericwirtanen wrote this on a fan Web site: "I wonder how Albequerque (sic) residents felt about this (episode). Their mayor is obviously pure evil."
Poor Jim Baca. As if the City Council hasn't given him enough grief over this Downtown stadium thing, now one of the most popular TV shows of all time has immortalized him as a baseball-team-stealing, Machiavellian politico in cahoots with a "cheap, heartless corporation."
You just can't buy publicity like that.
Fortunately for Baca, the cartoon mayor of Albuquerque wasn't named and looked nothing like him. The cartoon version had a drawl that sounded suspiciously Texan, and he was tall and silver-haired.
This apparently kept the real mayor of Albuquerque from taking the animated attack too seriously. "I thought it was hilarious," Baca said. "But I'm really not that mean and sinister."
Sculley laughed when told of the show's parallel to reality. "Just tell people 'The Simpsons' are behind whatever the people of Albuquerque want."
Homer has spoken.
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